Variable Interest Entities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Variable Interest Entities [Abstract]

Variable Interest Entities

21.    Variable Interest Entities

We consolidate VIEs in which we are deemed to be the primary beneficiary through our holding of a variable interest which is determined as a controlling financial interest. The controlling financial interest is evidenced by the power to direct the activities of a VIE that most significantly impact its economic performance and obligations to absorb losses of, or the right to receive benefits from, the VIE that could be potentially significant to the VIE. We take into account all of our involvements in a VIE in identifying (explicit or implicit) variable interests that individually or in the aggregate could be significant enough to warrant our designation as the primary beneficiary and hence require us to consolidate the VIE or otherwise require us to make appropriate disclosures. We consider our involvement to be significant where we, among other things, (i) provide liquidity facilities to support the VIE’s debt issuances, (ii) enter into derivative contracts to absorb the risks and benefits from the VIE or from the assets held by the VIE, (iii) provide a financial guarantee that covers assets held or liabilities issued, (iv) design, organize and structure the transaction and (v) retain a financial or servicing interest in the VIE.

We are required to evaluate whether to consolidate a VIE when we first become involved and on an ongoing basis. In almost all cases, a qualitative analysis of our involvement in the entity provides sufficient evidence to determine whether we are the primary beneficiary. In rare cases, a more detailed analysis to quantify the extent of variability to be absorbed by each variable interest holder is required to determine the primary beneficiary.

Consolidated VIEs In the ordinary course of business, we have organized special purpose entities (“SPEs”) primarily to meet our own funding needs through collateralized funding transactions. We transfer certain receivables to these trusts which in turn issue debt instruments collateralized by the transferred receivables. The entities used in these transactions are VIEs. As we are the servicer of the assets of these trusts and have retained the benefits and risks, we determined that we are the primary beneficiary of these trusts. Accordingly, we consolidate these entities and report the debt securities issued by them as secured financings in long-term debt. As a result, all receivables transferred in these secured financings have remained and continue to remain on our balance sheet and the debt securities issued by them have remained and continue to be included in long-term debt.

The following table summarizes the assets and liabilities of these consolidated secured financing VIEs as of December 31, 2011 and 2010:

	December 31, 2011				December 31, 2010
	Consolidated Assets		Consolidated Liabilities		Consolidated Assets		Consolidated Liabilities
	(in millions)
Real estate collateralized funding vehicles:
Receivables, net	$	4,486	$	-	$	5,354	$	-
Available-for-sale investments		4		-		104		-
Long-term debt		-		3,315		-		3,882
Total	$	4,490	$	3,315	$	5,458	$	3,882

The assets of the consolidated VIEs serve as collateral for the obligations of the VIEs. The holders of the debt securities issued by these vehicles have no recourse to our general assets.

Unconsolidated VIEs We are involved with VIEs related to low income housing partnerships, leveraged lease and investments in community partnerships that were not consolidated at December 31, 2011 or 2010 because we are not the primary beneficiary. At December 31, 2011 and 2010, we have assets totaling less than $1 million and $9 million, respectively, on our consolidated balance sheet, which represents our maximum exposure to loss for these VIEs.

As it relates to our discontinued Card and Retail Services business, we are also involved with other VIEs which provided funding to HSBC Bank USA through collateralized funding transactions. These VIEs are not consolidated at December 31, 2011 or December 31, 2010 because we are not the primary beneficiary as our relationship with these VIEs is limited to servicing certain credit card and private label receivables of the related trusts. In April 2011, the collateralized funding facilities were terminated by HSBC Bank USA.